Yari
A Yari is a unique alien species indigenous to Kasputin Yar in the Yariz star system. They would be best described as arboreal in nature, as they live nearly their entire lives in the vast canopy of rofalssa stalks that constitute Kasputin Yar's landscape. Pensive, ponderous and possessing a keen aptitude for processing tremendous amounts of input, Yaries have been described as organic supercomputers. Considered a prey animal in the context of their natural environment, Yaries are large but exceptionally limber, and have heightened auditory, proximity and visual senses; however, they are primarily solitary and autonomous. They congregate only when needed – for mating and dire emergencies – and prefer to communicate at distance using a series of warbling calls that echo through the canopy and travel for miles. These calls are not particularly loud, but are at a frequency that fellow Yari are attuned to, and carry a tremendous amount of information. Yari hearing, enhanced by the large, flared-hood-like structure of their head, can distinguish over fifty seperate sources of sound. Their eyes are large and expressive, but while they are able to see variances in temperature as variances in contrast intensity, they are otherwise colorblind. Typically, Yaries are three to four meters in size and sport a blued-gray leathery hide. Their skin has hundreds of hard folds and segments, resembling facets so as to give them more surface area with which to detect bio-electrical variations. For locomotion, they use eight limbs – four as primary limbs and four as fine dexterity limbs – with nearly their entire lives spent never touching the "ground". As the lone sentient (or, at least highest cognitive) species on Kasputin Yar, they have taken up the role of "shepherd / guardian" for their environment, and are frequently in the company of smaller arboreal rodents and reptiles which they fondly tolerate. Xenobiologists can find some similarities between Yaries and Sluissi, Ithorians, and Besalisks, but cannot reach a definite conclusion as to if it is related to any other species. Of great fascination to the scientific community is the level of cognitive processing these large, docile beings achieve. Since being discovered eons earlier, but summarily dismissed as just a curious, rarely engaging animal, the Yari had lived in near-obscurity until further documented by a pair of scientists aboard the Republic survey ship Resplendent XI passing through the system in 989 BBY. These findings were shared with Resplendent's next breakthrough discovery – the Sarians – and less than a year later, a contingent of Sarian biologists were visiting Kasputin Yar with the express purpose of forming a connection to the Yari. It took nearly thirty years of patient, gentle work, but the first extraterrestial language the Yari learned to speak was Sarian. Yaries speak very slowly, since they are so disposed to conveying large amounts of information in their native language. While they can link words together in the sing-song manner of Sarian, they sound very deliberate and almost plodding when speaking Basic, and it does take a conscious effort on their part to form coherant sentences. The Yari, as a collective race, are headed by The Diaconate, an order of sanctified elders who congregate at relatively frequent intervals to interact with the offworlders in the interests of their planet. Role in the Commonwealth All during the hundreds of years after Resplendent's discovery and the relationship formed with the Sarians, the Yaries have been complacent in uninvolved obscurity. The Sarians, and indeed the Caspians, upheld a policy of mutual aid and protection – albeit the Yaries needed protection and assistance far more often, and the Yaries could not contribute much in reciprocal. Even in the heyday of the Republic, Yaries were a rarely referenced, curious oddity. The advent of the Empire threw the entire galaxy into disarray, and for a time, this region and the Yaries were largely forgotten. Token Imperial overwatch was garrisoned within Caspia, but the Caspian people went to great lengths to keep the Yaries secret and not exposed to the xeno-oppressive Empire. The end of the Empire and arrival of Dergan Roj to Caspia ushered in a new relationship between Caspians and Yaries. With the Sarians' advocacy and endorsement of the new Commonwealth accords, the Diaconate ratified inclusion of Kasputin Yar into the Caspian Democratic Union. Soon after, they also willingly contracted their kind into the ranks of Crest service, finding use of their tremendous cognitive processing highly prized in logistics, investigation, virtualization and problem solving. Most of these employed Yaries still reside on Kasputin Yar, primarily in Nenawirth and Porthumberlon. A scant few have transferred to Caspia, living in a special domicile constructed for them in Plaxton. Of the most beneficial arrangement, Yaries committed themselves to Navy service. Even prior to the foundation of the CDU, the Yaries were consulted by the Caspians to propel development of Hood, a uniquely Caspian starship. Later, with the initiation of new starships, this time with the backing of offworld expertise, Sarians once again revisited their Yari friends to aid in the process, and after some deliberation, the Yari Diaconate offered to not only aid, but to contribute volunteers of their own kind to serve as integral, organic computing crew. Due to this intense contribution, the Caspian Democratic Union protects Kasputin Yar vehemently. With the exception of the Ix, all peoples of the Commonwealth respect and admire the Yari, despite their very unorthodox appearance. Tradition now holds that an Eireahavian, raised in one of the cities of Kasputin Yar, acts as an avatar for the Diaconate's Senator to the Union within the Assembly. Category:Unavailable Races